VSU Interior Design Professor to Study Weaving in Peru

VALDOSTA -- An assistant professor in Valdosta State
University’s Department of Art, Dr. Jessica Goldsmith will travel
to Peru in May to continue her study of indigenous weaving
practices.

Goldsmith was recently awarded a $5,000 VSU Faculty Research Seed
Grant, which will be used to fund her research. She will travel to
Peru on May 14, visiting three towns -- Lima, Cusco, and Chinchero
-- and expanding previous research into the indigenous,
pre-Columbian traditions of weaving and spatial use by weavers in
the Andean highlands of southern Peru. She will return to the
United States on May 24.

In Cusco and Chinchero, Goldsmith noted that she will meet with
Quechua weavers and study contemporary, local indigenous weaving
practices. Her objectives will be to document current weaving
spatial uses, participate in weaving with indigenous weavers, and
meet with local weaving leaders.

“This activity will expand our knowledge of how indigenous weavers
utilize weaving spaces,” she explained in her grant application.
“Previous research into indigenous weaving practices has primarily
focused on woven products. This research has intellectual merit
because it will expand past research by documenting in the field
how indigenous weavers interact with their spatial
environment.”

As both an interior designer and a practicing hand-weaver,
Goldsmith said that she is uniquely suited to study both how
indigenous weavers use space and what they produce in those
spaces.

“Indigenous Andean weaving practices, including tools and
materials, pre-date the … (Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire) …,”
she said. “Therefore, contemporary Andean weavers provide a unique
opportunity to study how a traditional craft has survived into the
modern era ….”

By going into the field and working with Andean weavers, Goldsmith
will be able to record how and where Andean weavers are working
today, what they are creating, how they are preserving their
weaving heritage, how they are using their work, and how they are
using heritage tourism to interact with weavers around the world.
She noted that these indigenous weavers have banded together in an
effort to maintain their fiber arts traditions, forming a weaving
cooperative, providing market access, and hosting classes for local
and international weavers.

“The research project is particularly significant at this time
because of increasing efforts to preserve indigenous Andean
cultures,” she said. “This research can inform ongoing efforts by
proposing that, in addition to crafts, language, costume, and
foods, how interior spaces are used is also part of a culture’s
living heritage. Awareness of indigenous people’s interactions with
space may preserve their spatial interaction from accidentally
changing and becoming absorbed into the dominant culture.”

Goldsmith’s past research into indigenous weaving practices has
been presented at three conferences and in an accepted
peer-reviewed journal article. She noted that her research in this
field is and will continue to be of interest to interior designers;
environmental psychologists; architectural, design, and craft
historians; as well as anthropologists.

An assistant professor of interior design at VSU since 2008,
Goldsmith graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor
of Interior Design in 2006, a Master of Interior Design in 2007,
and a Doctor of Philosophy in design, construction, and planning in
2012.

To learn more about the Faculty Research Seed Grant program, please
visit Valdosta State University’s Office of Sponsored Programs and
Research Administration online at www.valdosta.edu/ospra or call
(229) 259-5045.

To learn more about Jessica Goldsmith’s research into indigenous
weaving practices, please contact her at (229) 333-5855 or jmgoldsmith@valdosta.edu.